A slow maze continues...how long?

[Sandritha813]

~This quest is Solo~

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'Why me' I continued to ponder 'Why'. Now I was to continue my quest threw this swamp. Today I woke up earlier than usual in my small campsite that was hidden, but not far from, the main trail, I am not the most experienced in fighting and I would like to slowly work my progress up instead of smashing it the first chance I get. I was currently traveling in my home region of Dheathain, about two weeks ago I left Donnalaich and was now heading towards Talmhaidh. The sights in Donnalaich were extrodanary and now I wanted to see what awaits in Talmhaidh, on my way to Talmhaidh I ran into a slight problem; a giant (giant is a small word) swamp. I wanted to avoid it but it looked as if it went on for quite some time and if I did try and navigate around it I would probably get lost from the path and that wouldn't help me much, then it would only take longer to get to Talmhaidh. I took the only path that lie ahead of me, which was the one that lead into the swamp. I took a deep breath and gagged, it smelt so murky, thick, condenced and, well it looked the same with towering trees and the whinding vines that could go on forever, plus I could only see about ten feet into the swamp for the foliage was to great. I chucked, nice challange, so what will I learn; only one way to find out. My soft chuckling subsided and was replaced with a smirk, I took a step foward to continue my journey.

Thats how it started now I was only about a half an hour into the swamp and agrivated. The path that I was only split 4 times already and I didn't know if I was on the right path. Now I think I won't be able to reach Talmhaidh and not only that but in this horrid swamp it was humid with the dence air clinging to my skin, murky, I have no clue what lurked in here (luckily I haven't had any beast encounters) and it looked and smelt twice as bad.

"Damn" I cursed, but not to anything, just myself. I fell on the rough road and landed on a slippery, slimy log...wait slippery...slimy? In quick reflex I jumped back to narrowly avoid the giant, gray and green lizard that now wanted nothing else but to engulf me. It looked about 3 ft tall 16ft long and really angry. To snap out of my thoughts it lounged at me, and fast. I moved but not fast enough, it flicked its tail and came full-force across my abdomen sending me sailing into a tree. I landed hard on the ground and picked my self up, I felt the blood slowly trickle down my mouth, I wiped it away and I saw it charging me again 'was it going to give up?' I though but was interupted by a tail that I barely avoided. The hit I recieved was now starting to ache my whole body, I pulled my Katana from its sheath and saw it be engulfed by clashing, bright blue lightning. I needed to take special precautions because i'm a beginner and I noticed I was going to use close contact to kill it for I didn't want my energy to be lost that quickly and I didn't want to risk missing the target. The lizard seemed to be in a trance from the lighning that looked like it was danceing around my blade, I took the chance and so it couldn't take another swing at me I split its head in two with my Katana.

I watch in almost a slow motion as I decended from my fall the innerds of its head decorate the murky, wet floors of the swamp. Now satified I flickerd my katana to rid it of the beasts' blood. Its smelt horrid, I have always hated the smell of a fresh kill but knew it had to be done, it will only get worse with time and I knew that it would attract other bigger beast. I started my leave and tried to be quick about it, more than beasts could have heard. The injury that the lizard gave me wasn't helping either, so I tried to use speed to climb the trees to get hight, I slipped and now was falling at a dangerous pace. I grabbed a tree brance and whimpered (tring to hide the yell that would have recieved more then wanted attension), the wound was pulled on, by me grabbing the branch. So I painfully pulled myself up and now I accended slower, I finally found and safe-for-now spot. I layed down and closed my eyes to nap.

'this is going to be a very long journey' I sighed and was soon drifted into a un-restful slumber.

[Sandritha813]

My now seeming-to-be heavy eyelashes opened to reveal a almost welcoming darkness. This wasn't going to help me either, so I scanned the best of my abilities and I could only now see the next branch in head of me. Then I heard a noise, it was faint but I heard it. It was a beast, by the growling and I closed my eyes to try and distiquish the other sound. There was another beast and by the smell of it they have found the lizard that I destroyed and where now having dinner. Panic ran through my body like a bolt of lightning, I had to calm down. The beasts are probably going to able to smell me when they are done so I started a quick leave, I remembered the 'gift' the lizard left me, it was still a hazardous injury so I tried to take it slow and cautiously. I guessed I had 1 cracked rib, lucky.

I jumped from branch to branch, it was hard to see with the swamp being dense with branches and darkness, there was also a eiry fog that was settled in below (even with my sight a little more enhanced then a humans I could barely see that mysterious fog). I didn't want to risk walking on the forest floor, who knows what is down their, for I couldn't see and before when in Donnalaich I heard rumors of a terrifing race that dwelled deep within the bogs of a swamp they called Fiorair; this must have been the swamp. I was painfully leaping through the condensed branches and vines for 15 minutes now when I heard a snap. I turned my head to the left to see if I could find the sorce of it. Bad mistake, turning my head for that slight moment caused me to crash into a tree. I started to fall, I had to think fast. I flipped my body over and now I was falling face down, I tried to aviod as many branches as possible when my side hit a hard branch. I started to spin fast so I reached my legs out and my feet came in contact with a now splintering tree, and at that moment I bounced off and landed on the ground.

"err, I'm going to have to be more careful next time" I growled to myself. I was holding my arm at where it hit the tree, I looked at it and their were some cuts and a now forming bruse, thankng the fact that it didn't feel fractured. I dropped my arms and started to slowly continue my journey with my whole body wraking with pain and the injury with the lizard back on my mind. I now once again on was on the floor of the eiry swamp and the fog that was now fully present making my journey 10 times more difficult, I slowly continued.

[Sandritha813]

I was walking through the fog, I could barely see 5/6 ft infront of me. I used the ground to know where I was going and the darkness was not helping. I tryed to center my hearing and smelling as much as possible, my sight was not the most important thing right now. All I could smell was the muck, thick foliage, and dead rodents or small animals that have been taken for pray (that last one I can barely smell) and all I could hear was the creatures that where swimming in the murky, virulent waters below and the deathly night that seemed to pick me up with open arms.

'What the hell?...muddy waters, oh no' I quickly thought. Before I knew it I was shin deep in waters, something brushed my leg and in a second my Katana has cut through what ever just touched me.

"oh" 'A stupid fish got me all riled u...' "... What!!!" before I knew a giant, rabid, black bear that had Blood red eyes and claws and fangs that where probably as big and long as my forearm, was charging me.

'Damn, it cought me off guard' I was now holding my side which had three deep cuts in my side. I jumped back to get some space, and causing the rabid bear to charge. I just kept jumping back to keep some space in-between, when I slipped and fell. It swung and I rolled out of the way just in time.

'To close I need to finish this, I'll use close combat.' So I unsheathed my Katana and charged, the bear ingnored the crackeling that emited the sword and when I got close enough I swung

".....wha?..." 'NO!' The enraged bear smacked my katana, that was now embedded in a tree, away and the clashing lightning whimpered away, I was august, how? but couldn't hesitate, I dodged the next swing.

'So I am going to have to use magic' the rabid bear swung and missed, I quickly used the chance to through a lightning bolt from my hands and hit its target. My strikes aren't the stongest and the most accurate but I was very lucky that day and I mean lucky because it bearly hit its target and by the look of it, the bear was just unconscious, I desided that if I killed it now, it could attract attention.

So I looked at it, then I grabbed my katana and headed off.

My side was now bothering me and the fact that I had to use my magic with a fight in the middle of the night, well in short I was tired and I ached. I needed to find some place in the trees and sleep. Soon after I was high up, and it hurt getting up, I was soon fast asleep.

[Sandritha813]

I awoke to the roting smell of the forest. Opening my eyes to barely see the light that was struggling to past the almost endless tree tops and enter the damp insides that consisted of the forest. My stomack growled, great, I'm hungry. I needed to try and save the food I had now because I didn't know how long this swamp is. I remember when I was little mom told me once about a dark swamp that exsisted near Talmaidh, father told her. It was a swamp that many people would get lost in and die, she told me to aviod it. Of course that was years ago and now chuckling to no one in perticualar, she forgot to mention it to me before I left. Oh the irony. Now moving on to the matter of my stomack, I took out some bread out of my pack that I was greatful that I didn't lose during the fights I had with the bear and the lizard, and started to slowly consume it. I could try some hunting and have a fire risking an encounter with some more nasty beasts. I know and have known that the lizard and the bear where nothing compared with what I could get, I've been lucky. I'm regreting not remembering moms' words before entering. I'm going to risk it later for dinner, wonder how many of the creatures that live in the swamp have a good sence of smell, and i'm a beginner too.

Finishing my small meal, I looked down. I think I starting to get used to the thick, murky, dank, swamp. Not! I am am getting through the staying on guard part, and I have lost hope of staying on track, i'm just going to go in one direction and hopefully live until I can get out. I jumped down and winced, the cracked rib was barely healed and cuts haven't gone away yet, only the small stuff. At least its good training as long as I don't die, right? I have to be optimistic sometimes. I started with a slow pace, with all sences alert just in-case, I mean I don't want to stumble in on a happily snacking-on-some-creature beast and get them crankey or anything, I would hate to be interupted on the supposibly most important meal of the day.

Today I am going to try and rest and avoid any battle and try to heal my injuries that probably won't go away for another 3-6 days, 3-6 very valenerable day. For another couple more hours of carefully stalking through the swamp and barely escaping two diffrent giant demons of questionable orientation, I tripped. I watched the lump of moss before I tripped over it, I was now on guard with my hand hovering slightly above the hilt of my katana. I took a step back in caution waiting for the beast to move, I must always be on guard! Nothing moved. I waited another couple of minutes not moving a inch, I can't waist time or something big is going to come after me. So I flung my sword at it, CLANK! The impact shuck my sword making my hands vibrate, it almost craked my sword (thankfully almost). 'What? its not a monster? so thats why it didn't attack, but it also could have been a small scared creature hiding from what toiles in this haunting swamp. I took another strike that didn't have as much power. Clank! With my foot I started to wipe the spongy, damp moss off of the thing. It definatly was not a rock monster it was a small tresure chest, I started to examining it without getting to close. It could be a mimic. Only one way to find out, clink! In a reflex I pulled my sword back infront of my body and crackling lightning soon was present. The lid slowly peeled, noisely open, not a monster. The crackling of my katana stopped like it was never there and I sheathed the sword. I creeped closer and looked inside, there are just some coins. As quick as I could muster I grabbed the coins, only worth 30 gold, not that bad. 'Why is there random coins in the middle of the forest?' I wondered.

'Im going to need more food for this journey' I rationally figured out. I started to mentally made notes in my head of tiny creatures in this forest I could hunt. Squirels...probably giant mutated squirels, rabbits, same goes for them. Now that I am thinking about it, probably any creature that you can find tiny or innocent, there is a good chance that you can only find giant, mutated and blood thirsty. I will have to just hope I get lucky and find something small that won't be able to injury me. 'It doesn't look like there are any berries bushes or nut trees near by.' Making a mental check of the foliage in this whinding, dence, rough forest of never-ending branches or shrubery.

I froze. I see a dead-half eaten mutated rabbit. My luck. Luckily enough only the organs of the rabbit were eaten, the leg meat and some other muscle weren't touched. I then dicided this is the best Im going to get without going into battle myself. The rabbit though didn't look the most appitizing, the face was twisted to look though it was full of pure hatred and agonising pain even though the eyes were glazed over. It was lieing in a pool of its own blood that was mixing in with the bog of the swamp, but it did die on one of the drier parts of the swamp so it wasn't that bad. The coat now covered in a slick layer of fresh blood and mud. I could accually smell it over the murky smell of the bog, but it smell like pure iron from the amount of blood and...death, that is the only way I could put it. Ever since I was little, when mom made a kill, it always smell this one particular smell that just creeped me out and I would ask mom what it was. She would always say that it was the smell of a being without its soul. I would just agree. She said that only beings with a demons sence of smell could smell it, so I still believe it not wanting to know what that smell really is. Getting back to the kill, I had to do it. I took a small knife that I have hidden in a pocket under the flap of my bottom of my attair (which is where I had to put the coins, so the knife barely fit) for cooking and slowly peeled the fur as best I could off of the rabbit with the tiny knife and I didn't do that bad of a job, but you could tell that I was beginner at pelt peeling. I wanted to keep the pelt, even if it wasn't a complete dirty pelt, maybe I could sell it or make something of it. Before I could do that though I would need to wash it, when I find a clean stream or lake. So I laid the carcuss on the freshly cut part of the hide (so the meat won't get dirty) I started to cut off pieces of rabbit meat off of any part of the rabbit that the creature ate and put them on area of the hide that wasn't used. The meat was very tough, mom made it look so easy, to cut so I did the best I could which wasn't that good. When done I put the knife away and I ended up with small straps of pathetic looking meat, it would have to do so I rolled the what was left of the carcass off of the hide. I put the meat in the middle of the hide (that was still spread out fur-down) and grabbed the corners of the awkard-shaped half pelt and picked it up so it was like a bag.

[Sandritha813]

Smelling the fresh meat make my stomack growl, might as well not let it go to waste. firmly grabbing the corners with one hand I held my other hand in front of it with my index finger pointing at the sack. I stared at the sack and tried to concentrate feeling the lightning well up in my body I focused on my finger and then I saw the lightning flash from my finger to the sack, the sack didn't explode but was covered by light blue lightning for a second. I took a peak inside the bag and saw that it wasn't cooked fully (with me being not that experience with the control of power of my beginners lightning, I just tried to not burn it) but I was satisfied with my work. Opening the sack a little I took out a piece of meat and sampled it, It tasted chewy and bloody but it was fine by my standards, I could accually almost taste the things that its eaten. Some like the bog's grass and I could also almost taste the bog itself (which wasn't that appitizing) but it went down and stayed down.

Now I needed somewhere to hide, rest and eat far away from the rabbit because some beasts are probably able to smell the dead rabbit. I slowly started the hard task of climbing up a tree with one hand holding the sack and the injuries from the fights. It wasn't that easy, plus the fact that I was in a dence foliaged area. Once I was as high as I disired I started to leap a couple of branches as I wanted until I felt at a safe distance between the rabbit and myself. I found a solid, wide, sturdy branch and I sat down and I slowly started eating my meat. I only had about five strips of the meat before I felt satisfied I still had about 2/3rd of the meat so I tried to tie the corners of the dirty pelt and placed it next to me. I tried to get as comfortable as possible ( The bark of the tree was fairly rough, but not enough to splinter. It is still very irratable though.) with using the vertical trunk of the tree as a head rest, I tried and did drift off into a short nap.

I needed the nap because I needed to heal my injuries even though it was probably in the middle of the day (I couldn't tell because of the dense, neverending tree tops hiding the sun from view and the fact that there wasn't that much of a diffrence between day and night) and the injures will take a little more then just a night to heal. I needed to be in top shape in order to get through this forest. Plus the fact that I used magic earlier to cook the meat.

So closing my eyes I started to drift into a short nap.

[Sandritha813]

I think my 'nap' wasn't a nap because it was still 'light' out, i believe that I slept for a whole day. I feel very well rested so I probable slept for at least 12 hours which is something that I need when worn out. If I can count correctly then this was only my third day in the forest...which aggrivates me, this needs to go faster. My rib is still sore and the cuts are now healing scars, they would be scars but not as bad as a full blooded human. I can go a little faster than my normal pace but not by much. I will be sore for the next couple of days which agrivated my mind and torchered my soul. I wish I was better suited for this dense, heavy forest, I was a traveler so I should be able to adapt to diffrent environments easily but, a swamp of this magnitude seemed to throw my expirence out the window. And even though some would consider this expirience a weird/nightmarish type dream, I thought that this is the closest that anyone could get to reality. The twisted branches, murky floors, never ending canopy and the mystery, darkness and the morbid beauty of the wood, to me, resembled everything in life. How some things in life were just that way, dense, twisted, murky, unbareable and mysterious. Then again that is my way of thinking, there are millions of opinions that I just don't care about.

Hours later of wandering, I came across an extrodinary sight, a city, or what can be acounted for as a city (more like a swamp utopia). It was huge, the giant stone wall that that surrounded looked like it was crumbling, but would stand up agianst the mightest of wars. The buildings in this city were mighty, in simple terms, they were strongly held up by the thick, huge trees that were so natural to the swamp. The homes and structures seemed to be neatly woven into the twisted branches which, if I had previous thought about it, was impossible to me. It was pure beauty in its malevolent form. This was a city that I probably would not want to acquaint my self with. I couldn't see the ground level of this city but I could barely see the bridge and gate with citizens could pass through. The citizens I could only see the outline of, the majority seemed to be these gigantic creatures. I didn't get any good vib from this area so I made a sharp turn to my right and continued hopefully without any of them seeing me. I don't want any encounter with an area were I can die. Even though some could point me in the right direction or I could get supplies, I didn't want to risk it.

I also heard a rumor about a dark city inside a giant swamp, 'Ha' I thought it was a fairy tale. Oh the irony...but seriously this must have been the city. What my luck.

"umff, what the h-...oh, sorry to bump into you..." I was now staring into the red blood-thristy eyes that belonged to a creature that came out of that city. And oh boy was it a creature, I couldn't stop shaking.

"..." The dark staring continued as it make my soul run freezing cold. Then it (I couldn't reconize the gender at the moment) started speaking in some languaged that right about now I didn't want to know what it was saying.

I barely stopped shaking so that I could bowed my head showing that I had respect for its power (hopefully that is what they wanted hoping he wouldn't cut it off with his claws). What he was saying sounded pretty close to 'get out of here or you will die'. So I took the liberty of leaving so that I wouldn't have to deal with death.

I wasn't chased so that must have been a good thing, he was probably one of the nice ones or it was just him piting such a weak creature. I like to think the first option (even with how weak I truly am compared to some). I kept on running and didn't look back to know what was going on and that was probably the right thing because no creature wasn't following me by the scent of it; even though this swamp's smell is extremely strong and I probably couldn't tell if something was following me. It wouldn't be wise of me to battle to because of my healing injuries so after a couple minutes of running I stopped to take a breather and to have a couple strips of meat. Thankful that the creature didn't take it or that I didn't drop it when I slammed into its concrete stomact. I don't have very much meat (about 1/4 of the bag) and that would probabaly be tonights dinner.

Then I realized something. I reached down and didn't feel the tiny cooking knife. I checked under the flap of skirt didn't see it. I must have dropped it when I ran into that creature, but luckily enough I had my coins. Which I have no clue on how that is possible, maybe its the fact that the knife is larger so it is easier to fall out of the pocket. That must have been it.

'I can probably go buy another small knife with the money I have recovered. That is one thing on my list of things to do once I get out of this swamp.' Depending on how much small cooking knifes are worth, 30 gold might not cut it. That is if I don't lose the money somewhere in this swamp or what town I go to next if I make it out of here alive. Logic. Hopefully with logic I can get out of here and when I think about it, it would take more than logic to get me out of here. Great.

So I continued on my way and that lead to no-where. I had my thoughts though and that still kept me alive. I had to think about this logically and calculate what I know. One, It has been about three days and I just past a city. That city was very big so for privacy they probable wanted it as far in the middle and hiden as possible because there were very few guest judging by my view of the entrence I had. So It took me three days to reach the middle, so it would probable take another three days to get out of. I should be mostly healed by the end of this 'vacation'. Hopefully I will end up on the other side and not where I started, then I would hike around no-matter how many days or weeks. I mean this swamp couldn't go on forever right? So I continue onwards to the end of the swamp.

[Sandritha813]

So I wandered around for another few hours and luckily nothing dicided to kill me. I was in one of the 'wetter' parts of the swamp (Its all wet, just this part looked murkier).

I soon came to one part of the swamp that wasn't so dense with trees. Its was actually quite clear (surprising) and then I saw something that looked tremendous. The thing that so far I had identified as a kracken had a gigantic octopus tenticals with huge suckers out of the water with what I think could be considered brown claws at the end of each limb that were submerging into the brown, green murky, muddy waters of the swamp. I couldn't tell the length of the tenticals from how long or big they were, I only saw about ten feet of the tenticals like things. I couldn't see one inch under the dark waters and this didn't make me content.

My current location is on a tree about 100 yards from what just happened, I stayed still letting my feet settle on the rough bark of the tree trying to think of how I can avoid this. There were a few trees in this 'pond' that I could try to jump across or I can just turn and try to avoid the whole thing, but I think thats almost impossible. Its been this 'wet' for about an hour of traveling and I don't want to just turn around and re-trace my steps back to that scary city, which I now know why there arn't so many wars there. So this beast could be right under me and I don't know his range. Plus the fact that I have healing injuries. This is going to be tough.

I didn't move because that beast could probably feel my vibrations from the tree, so slowly bending down I broke a small twig off of one of the branches being very careful and threw it as far as I could. The moment when the twig rippled through the murky water's surface I saw a huge tentical about 50 ft long come ripping out of the water where that twig just landed. 'uh oh' my mind began to race with panic. I forced myself to calm down, so after a few minutes of calming down, I started to plan what I could do to get out of this situation.